Currently, portable devices and body-borne or wearable devices are increasingly more widely used. There is a wide range of uses for such devices; thus, for example, Google Glass is used as a display device, while smart clothes are used, above all, to monitor the user's vital signs.
In the field of wearable devices designed for the user's upper extremity, we find smart bracelets and watches for the wrist, smart rings for the finger and smart gloves for the hand, with different applications.
Smart bracelets and watches are used as a small computer with a touchscreen and wireless communication with other devices via Bluetooth, and in many cases, they are provided with GPS and motion detectors (accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer).
Among their applications, the display of information from mobile phones is highlighted, and especially user activity monitoring. Thus, the Samsung Gear Fit bracelet monitors the physical activity of the user. The patent document US20140081179-A1 discloses a smartwatch with an accelerometer that registers the movements of the watch to subsequently analyse them and determine whether the user is at risk of fatigue. The document US20140089514-A1 discloses a smartwatch with a motion sensor (accelerometer, gyroscope or magnetometer) to monitor the movement of the user over time. The document US20130044215-A1 discloses the use of inertial sensors (gyroscope or accelerometer) in a smartwatch with a flexible screen to reposition the information shown to the user on the screen depending on the movements of the watch, so that the information from the watch screen is always shown to the user centred regardless of the orientation of the watch.
The application of wearable devices to remotely control external devices is also known. Thus, the Samsung Gear 2 smartwatch is provided with an infrared emitter that may be used as a remote control to control the television.
The patent document CH706077-A2 discloses a smartwatch that controls a hearing apparatus via gestures, for example volume control. However, it has the disadvantage that it can only control a single specific device and that it only recognises basic and robotic movements of the user's hand, and not natural hand movements (for example, lateral hand movement with simultaneous wrist rotation).
There are also smart rings to control a device via gestures. Thus, the Nod smart ring from the company Nod, Inc. enables the index finger to be used as a pointer and includes a small touch-sensitive surface and two function buttons (for example, to turn the volume up and down) that complement the form of interacting with the device. The Smarty Ring smart ring enables control over the user's mobile phone, such as accepting or rejecting calls or activating the phone's camera. The Fin ring from the company RHLvision Technologies uses an optical sensor to carry out the control of a device using the phalanges of the fingers of the hand as a user interface.
With respect to smart gloves, at the 2014 World Mobile Congress held in Barcelona, Fujitsu presented a smart glove with an NFC reader that uses augmented reality (combined with augmented reality glasses) and basic user gesture recognition (up, down, left, right and wrist rotation) to carry out factory maintenance tasks, aiming to reduce workplace accidents and increase the efficiency of maintenance operators.
The use of mobile devices to remotely control other devices via gestures is also known. Thus, the patent document WO2013026714-A1 discloses the use of a mobile phone with a gyroscope to control the engine of a motorised surf board via the movements of the phone. The document US20120225635-A1 discloses the use of a mobile phone to carry out emergency actions when the user shakes the mobile.
In the video games sector the use of motion sensors to control the actions of a video game character on the screen is known. For example, the document US20130296048-A1 discloses the use of a mobile phone as a controller for the movements of the player's golf club, via an accelerometer and gyroscope. The document US20140045463-A1 discloses the use of a smartwatch with an accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer for game applications. Similarly, the controller of the Wii console uses an accelerometer to measure acceleration on three axes and determine the movement that the user is carrying out in order to reproduce it on the screen, for example, when applied to a tennis game, the movement of the controller simulates the movement of the racquet that the player carries out in the game.
However, all the portable devices known have the problem that they are specifically made to control a single external device and that said control is carried out in a basic manner with unnatural movements. The present invention solves this problem via a portable device that enables interaction with different external devices (where the selection and/or function of the device that one wishes to control may also be carried out via gestures), with gestures that are completely natural for the user and are independent of the intensity, strength and/or speed of the gesture carried out.